This invention relates to an apparatus and method for knitting proteinaceous fragments into a unified mass, and in particular, to an apparatus and method for accumulating and knitting fragments of meat into thin patties, sometimes referred to as cube steaks.
In the course of butchering, dressing and preparing meat products for sale, numerous meat scraps or fragments inevitably result. Due to the relatively high cost of meat, it is desirable to salvage even the smallest meat fragments, Numerous methods have been suggested and employed for salvaging such fragments. One such method includes grinding the fragments into hamburger, another pertains to mincing the fragments for insertion into frankfurter casings, and a third pertains to combining the fragments with other ingredients to form pet foods products. Though these and other salvaging methods desirably provide a financial return on the meat fragments, resulting in some savings, they are subject to certain drawbacks. More particularly, the salvageable meat fragments are often trimmed from the choicest meat cuts, and therefore their value is substantially reduced by converting them into products such as hamburger, frankfurters, or pet foods which generally bring a much lower price.
The apparatus and method of the invention provide means for converting fragments trimmed from choice meat cuts into a meat product which will bring a price more commensurate with the quality of the meat from which the fragments originated. More particularly, the apparatus and method of the invention enable meat fragments to be knitted together to form tasty, high quality proteinaceous food products of the type sometimes referred to as cube steaks.
Though some processes for knitting together pieces of proteinaceous material, such as meat, are disclosed in the prior art, these disclosures generally teach methods accomplished primarily by manual means, or pertain to pieces of meat much larger than the scraps or fragments salvageable by the apparatus and method of the invention. In contrast, the present invention relates to a highly automated process, capable of continuous cube steak production. Moreover, the invention works equally well with very small fragments, thereby maximizing the amount of salvageable meat.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of this invention to provide an improved apparatus for knitting together proteinaceous food fragments.
It is another object of this invention to provide an improved, highly automated method for knitting together proteinaceous food fragments.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an improved, continuous method for knitting together proteinaceous food fragments.
It is still another object of this invention to provide an improved method for making cube steaks.
Still another object of this invention is to provide an improved apparatus for making cube steaks.